Negotiating Neutrality: German Media and the Legitimacy of Athlete Activism

Abstract

This paper examines how German media frame athlete activism related to social justice, with particular attention to how neutrality is constructed as a legitimacy criterion. While existing research has largely focused on U.S. media contexts, less is known about how neutrality operates as a framing logic in other media systems. Drawing on qualitative frame analysis of 43 articles from eight high-reach German media outlets (2020–2024), the study identifies six dominant frames that construct athlete activism through competing interpretations of neutrality. The findings show that neutrality functions not as a fixed norm but as a flexible framing logic through which the legitimacy of athlete expression in sport is negotiated. Media discourse variously legitimises exclusion, enables conditional acceptance, dissolves conflict through reclassification, exposes disciplinary power, prioritises moral claims, and reflects ongoing renegotiation. These patterns are conceptualised as a Neutrality Spectrum , capturing shifts from the defence to the contestation of neutrality. By foregrounding institutional boundary-setting rather than individual athletes, the German case highlights how legitimacy struggles are articulated through questions of governance, regulation, and interpretive authority. The study contributes to scholarship on athlete activism and media framing by reconceptualising neutrality as a discursive mechanism through which politicisation is managed rather than avoided.